


A Rose or Two

by Cookiewrites



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Homophobic Language, M/M, Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-08
Updated: 2017-03-08
Packaged: 2018-09-30 18:22:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10169045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cookiewrites/pseuds/Cookiewrites
Summary: Vicchan died before Yuuri's second event, and he never made it to the GPF, Phichit takes him to a small town in Switzerland, where Coach Cialdini knows the local rink owners. They come across a certain Swiss Ice skater and his friend looking for inspiration.Or based on the idea: An LGBT couple mistook my salty singleness as being Homophobic, which wouldn't bother me except now the person i'm 100% gay for is avoiding me





	

**Author's Note:**

> Listen, my queer ass can not spell for shit, so if there's any vague "coach said this" "A cool ass spin" it's because I spent 20 hours writing this and I don't have the energy to google the spellings.  
>  _In house h/c at the end._

During the off season, Victor always tried to go somewhere, at least for a month. He told Yakov every year that he did it to find inspiration, but mostly it was because he hated watching his team mates look so lively when he was slowly being drained. 

It worked, for the most part. 

He usually came back with the inklings of an idea, so Yakov let it slide. 

This season, it was spending time with Chris, in Switzerland. 

He was friends with the old American couple that ran a small ice rink in his hometown. It was his first ever skating rink so they became almost like family. Whenever he had time during the off season he’d go back to his home and help around the rink in exchange for ice time after they closed.  
This year, he had invited Victor. 

Victor had been before, and since the old couple still followed ice skating he was welcomed enthusiastically.  
Chris’s parents had long since moved out into an age friendly home, but had kept this home because of how frequently he visited. It wasn’t a chore to come along.  
The small rink was decent, for being in a small town with only Giacometti as their skating legacy, but he knew Chris adored it. And Victor had grown to adore it too.  
The only issue was the ‘working’ part of the agreement, because the only work Victor had ever taken part in was when he was at Angel’s Ice Rink, even training under Yakov involved coming in whenever, and flaunting responsibility until he was shouted at. There was always lee way for a five-time grand prix gold medal winner. 

Except for when he was working under the D’Angelo’s.

Technically, the 9am open time for the rink was a lie in for both Chris and Victor, as their coaches would have usually had their heads for anything later than a 7am start, but after the initial few days it still felt like hell.  
Especially when Chris couldn’t even think coherently until he was on his second coffee.  
Victor had to admit though, if only to himself, that living a quaint little life was interesting, he wondered it this would what it would be like if he was something other than a sporting legend. 

It was fun.  
~  
It was not fun.  
“Chris ~” Victor whined, leaning back on his chair to where the other boy was sitting further in the office.  
“You’re bored?” Chris asked, raising his eyebrow.  
“There’s no been anyone in the rink for hours” They both pointed ignored the clock that told them the place had only been open for half an hour.  
“Hmm,” Chris stood up, making his way to sit at the check in desk and look down at Victor, who was still dramatically draped over his chair.  
“We should probably find something to pass the time then” Victor perked up at that, his eyes alight with interest. 

“You always did have the best ideas.”

A total of ten minutes later Chris’s phone’s memory was full of selfies, and they were both slumped over the desk again. 

“Your ideas are the worst.” Chris flicked his hair from his face, glancing down at Victor. 

“I could give you a blowjob under the table.” He replied, wiggling his eyebrows at the man below him. 

“It’s not just your ideas, you are the worst.” Chris let out a scandalised gasp. 

“I’m offended, Victor.” 

“Good.”  
“Chris!” They both looked up at the sound of Chris’s name. It was Mrs D’Angelo, her voice carrying from the upstairs office. 

“It looks like I’m wanted.” Chris smirked as he stood up. 

“sigh. Left alone.” He was ignored. 

“Victor, could you go out back and check the kids aren’t messing with the electric box again. I man the desk until you get back.” Victor was out of his chair before Mr. D’Angelo had even finished his sentence. 

“I can do that, no problem.” The man smiled slightly at how eager Victor had sounded to get away from the front desk.

“And maybe sweep the benches near the ice rink when you’re done.” Victor never in his life thought his saving grace would be sweeping floors, but he did suppose he lived for surprises. 

He left with a “Yes sir.” Almost skipping to the back door. 

Victor was happier with the task to sweep under the bench stand more than he was to check the electricity box. It only took a glance outside, and to make sure the door to the electrics was still locked, and he almost dreaded the boredom of sitting behind a desk until lunch.  
Thankfully, he only had the weekends where he would man the desks that early, since you would sometimes get people coming in early. Most days he and Chris could spend on the ice until about 11 o’clock when people started to drift in. 

On Mondays, they could practically spend all day on the ice, people only coming in in the afternoon, the summer air making them sleepy and lazy.  
Victor loved those days. 

He wondered what Yakov would think if he saw how responsible Victor was, in his bright blue uniform with a brush and shovel in his hands, ready to sweep the floors of the ice skating rink. He thought Yakov would probably have a heart attack. 

Or perhaps he would make Victor do that at his home rink. 

Perhaps it’s best Yakov doesn’t see him like this. 

By the time he’d gotten out to the rink, there was a lone figure on the ice. It was a he, he knew from the build, and tight fitting workout clothing. He was on the side of the rink, looking flushed. He couldn’t have been on the rink long enough to build up a sweat, so Victor guessed he had ran here from somewhere, and didn’t pause for breath until he was on the ice. 

That was probably what made Victor pause. The boy was younger than him from what he could see, and had good form on the ice despite still standing on the side of the rink, he was slightly familiar, and Victor wondered if he competed. 

Earphones placed in his ears, the boy started skating. 

And it took Victor’s breath away. He was doing bits of a routine, one Victor wasn’t familiar with, so immediately his mind went back to competitor, but he couldn’t remember ever skating against this person. 

Perhaps this person was from outside of Europe, and therefore skated in the Four Continents instead of Europeans. 

The figure stepped out of his triple axel, struggled to regain balanced and his hand touched down, forcing him to slow down slightly. He slowed further, looking annoyed and then proceeded to launch himself into some of the most amazing step sequences Victor had seen. 

This was ridiculous, victor thought to himself, surely talent like that would have been in the Grand Prix Final with him, and Victor wondered if he could’ve ever forgotten moves as beautiful as that. 

He’d gotten closer, only sweeping absentmindedly but not taking his eyes from the skater.  
The music was obviously close to ending, and the man was still doing jumps despite how exhausted he must be. Victor was surprised in a way that he’d never felt before when the boy ended the show with a quad flip, Victor’s own signature move. He fell, and got up without missing a beat, but it didn’t stop Victor from shoving the brush away so he could clap loudly. 

The song must have been still playing, because the boy had started to turn away from Victor, when he pulled out the headphones and turned to face him.  
He squinted, gliding forward towards where he was standing when Victor came in and tilted his head. 

“Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t realise anyone else would be here so early, are you here to skate?” A red flush seemed to spread across his cheeks, as if embarrassed to ask what someone would be doing at an ice rink other than skating. Victor laughed. 

“Yes, but not now. You need to straighten your back more into the quad flip.” The boy reached for something on the side of the rink, and Victor realised he was reaching for glasses. No wonder he was squinting. 

“Do you figure skate?” The stranger asked. 

Before Victor got to answer, however, the stranger had put on his glasses, and paled. 

“V-victor Nikiforov.” Victor beamed, and realised how cute the stranger looked, now that he was closer to the rink side. 

“I guess I don’t have to answer that question, do I?” Cute Stranger almost fell, standing completely still, and Victor got the strangest impression that perhaps Cute Stranger was a fan. 

“You’re – I mean, you-” Victor wouldn’t have been able to dim the smile even if he tried. The figure skater was stuttering and turning even a brighter shade of red.  
“You can call me Victor.” Said Victor. “You’re …?” Was it possible for the boy to turn even more red?

“Katsuki Yuuri.” He stuttered out. “Yuuri.” 

“Nice to meet you, Yuuri.” 

“Sorry, I, yeah. I should, go. It was -sorry.” Yuuri stumbled to the entrance, throwing on his guards. 

“I’m helping out here for the next couple of weeks, will you be here?” 

“I -yes. Training. I mean, I need to train because I skate. Obviously, I skate, you just say me, oh my god you saw me skate” Yuuri babbled. “but yeah … I’ll see you?” He almost tripped over himself getting away from the rink, and Victor felt a frown crease his forehead. 

Why had Yuuri run from him? Was he not a fan? He spent the rest of the day in a daze, only half hearing Mr D’Angelo tell him what to do.  
All he could do was grin when Chris saddled up to him and questioned about his mood. 

“You should have seen him skate, Chris.” 

~

Yuuri Katsuki, Chris tells him later, when they’re lying on the couch with the legs entwined and a movie on, is a fellow figure skater who won silver at the skate Canada last year but was so awful in his second event that he didn’t manage to get into the GPF. 

Chris had skated that year with Katsuki’s rink mate at the cup of China, and he heard rumours that Katsuki’s dog had died the night before he competed. 

In all honesty, Victor was impressed. If Makkachin had died the day before he was supposed to skate, he probably wouldn’t have even made it onto the ice. The season afterward the Grand Prix qualifiers had apparently gone just as bad, with Katsuki even failing to medal at his nationals. 

Katsuki had been dragged to Switzerland by said Rink mate to try and get his mind off the death of his pet, and his failure when he was so close to skating in the GPF. The D’Angelos apparently knew their coach, and so they had ended up here. Katsuki and the unnamed Rink mate would practice here in the mornings, usually before Victor and Chris had even gotten out of bed. 

But, Chris tagged on at the end, Katsuki had rumours surrounding him that he was going to retire. 

Victor felt his heart squeeze involuntarily. He didn’t think Yuuri was quite ready to retire yet, not with what had looked like a short program in the workings, but still, Victor wanted to make sure that the world recognises his skating for what Victor saw in Angel’s Ice rink. 

If Yuuri really was practicing every day at the ice rink, he just supposed he’d have to go in earlier, and maybe give the gorgeous Japanese a few pointers, and then by next season even if they didn’t get to skate in the same qualifiers, he’d see Yuuri at the finals. 

The grin – the one Katsuki had placed on his face with his presence – came back. Maybe this time when Yakov asked him if he’d found inspiration, he wouldn’t have to lie. 

~

Saturdays were no fun for Victor. It was his first one at the Ice Rink this year, but they’d had the same theme since the first time he’d been here and it had lost its charm many Saturdays again. 

Saturdays were ‘Lovers on Ice’ day. A plot the D’Angelos came up with years ago when they realised ice skating was very popular with couples. You would have the ‘Eros’ couples and the ‘Agape’ couples. 

All this meant that if you were a couple who had been together less than a year you’d get a free red rose and a 10% discount on a Saturday skate. If you were a couple who had been together longer than a year, you’d be an ‘Agape’ couple and given two red roses and a 20% discount.  
While Victor enjoyed seeing the cute couples slide up and down the rink, shrieking and dramatically folding into each other’s arms despite being pretty much able to keep their feet steady, he hated how busy it got. 

If he were to be recognised on any day, it would be a Saturday.

And today Chris had yet to come in, because Victor was early. 

At 6am Victor had gotten to the Ice Rink, and despite it being summer the sun was still low in the sky. He’d taken off his sunglasses and gasped at Mrs D’Angelo, who looked like she was falling asleep at the desk, and told her he’d happily come in early and she deserved a lie in on the weekends. 

He’d no sooner sent the woman back to her house behind the rink and settled into the desk chair to have Yuuri walk through the doors.  
He froze when he saw Victor, and looked back at the doors as if debating whether to slink out of them or not. 

“Yuuri! Good morning!” Victor exclaimed, leaning over the desk as far as he could to make sure the Japanese could see him. Yuuri cringed at Victors loudness, looking like he’d rather go to bed than anything else. 

“You remembered my name?” Yuuri asked, and then immediately blushed and looked down. Victor refused to find it endearing.  
Really. 

It wasn’t. 

“Of course I do, I couldn’t forget you after watching you skate yesterday.”

“Oh god, how much did you see?”  
“All of it, your step sequences were excellent, even if your jumps left something to desired.” Victor hadn’t noticed, but Yuuri had been growing redder the more he talked, and when he looked back, the younger man had his hands completely covering his face.

“Oh no you saw my disastrous quad flip at the end. I totally failed your signature move!” Victor was confused again, had he completely missed Victors compliments? Most people preened when he called their moves excellent. 

“You’re a big enough fan to know my signature move? Did you do it at the end of your performance for me yuri~~” If Victor was any further over the desk he would probably fall, and every time Yuuri stepped back, victor pushed forward.

“NO!” They were both shocked by the volume of the denial. “I mean – yes- I mean I didn’t know you were in there! I just get inspired by your skating and was frustrated.” His eyes widened further “Not that I knew you were here either, I’m not a stalker my coach just knew the D’Angelos so he thought it’d be a good get away where I could still skate…” 

“Chris dragged me along for the summer to get inspiration for the next season. He knows the D’Angelos too, we’re working here so we can skate for free after hours.” Victor replied. 

“Oh! I’m sorry, you probably want to get back to work and I’m rambling about myself-“ This time, Victor actually cleared the desk. Even though he flailed slightly he still managed to stand poised as he shimmied closer to Yuri and put his finger on his lips to shush him. 

“Don’t apologise Yuuri, I want to know everything about you.” 

“I’m really not that interesting.” Yuuri’s reply was more of a mumble, he hadn’t moved away from Victor’s index finger that was placed on his lips. 

“Then getting to know you should be easy, да?” The bag Yuuri had over his shoulder fell, and with it broke Yuuri’s concentration. While victor looked down and the offending bag, Yuuri was quick to step back several steps. 

“Y-yes. I should go.” And again, he scurried off to get on the ice, leaving Victor alone. Victor smiled, somewhat triumphant. First he’d get comfortable with the Japanese skater, then he’d get him to the Grand Prix Final. 

Victor closed the doors, the ice rink wouldn’t open officially for another 3 hours. He had plenty of time. 

~

“You should extend your arm more; you’re throwing yourself off balance.” 

Yuuri looked up at that, and promptly fell on his arse. 

“Vic-victor!” The skater in question felt a bemused grin make its way on his face. He was sure they younger skater only stuttered around him. 

“Yuuri!” He sang back, instead of calling him out. 

“I’m sorry, did you want to use the ice?” 

“No, you’re fine. I’m just meant to clean the benches before the rink opens.” Yuuri nodded three times fast, and carried on skating bits from the program he had seen yesterday.  
Just like yesterday, he found himself only barely paying attention to the cleaning, his gaze entirely focused on the ice. 

Within the following hours until opening time, Victor watched Yuuri fall more times he could count, and flub some of the jumps that had seemed so easy to him the day before … when he thought no one was watching.

“You should hold your arms tighter when you jump Yuuri, it would give you faster rotations.” Victor called out, and Yuuri once again under rotated and lost his balance. He got up quickly and nodded, not quite at Victor, but it was an acknowledgement. 

When he tried to do a triple axel this time, he got the full amount of rotation despite his shoddy landing. 

Victor clapped, a smug smile on his face. He didn’t know why Yakov complained, Victor was sure he could easily be an excellent coach when he retired.

When Yuuri skated over to the benches to get his skate guards, Victor absolutely beamed at him. 

“That was great!” Yuuri shot him a disbelieving look. 

“I didn’t cleanly land one of my jumps!” He exclaimed, throwing the guards on before stepping out of the rink. 

“But your axel was tighter! You improved!” Yuuri looked at him again, the hard crease between his eyes deepening as he frowned at Victor, like he was expecting him to laugh.  
He didn’t respond, choosing instead to turn away from Victor, his shoulders hunching further as he went. Victor watched him go obliviously, before making his way back to the front desk. Chris would be there soon, and Victor was eager to moon over the younger man with his friend. 

And so, it went. 

All of Saturday, Chris watched Victor give couples a flower, sighing each time he did it. After the first time, he asked what was up, and Victor lamented for two whole hours about the Japanese Yuuri, Chris had taken to not making any comment on Victors mood, but couldn’t help the smirk every time he mumbled something about how cute their competition looked in workout clothes. 

When Victor took to the ice at closing time, he started to work with some ideas for the next season. 

He didn’t have a name yet, or a theme, but he was suddenly more certain about gaining inspiration away from St. Petersburg. 

On Sundays, the rink was closed for public use. Previously, these days meant real lies in until the two could get out of bed, unlike their actual days off (Tuesdays and Wednesdays- the slow days), they usually always ended up going to the gym for private sessions. 

These days they would spent the afternoons (because it was hardly ever before noon that they got up) lazily skating around the rink, challenging each other to certain jumps, and making innuendos when they inevitably ended the sessions as sweaty messes. 

After their usual jog, they stopped at a small coffee shop on the way to get Chris his caffeine fix. It was new since the last time Victor had been, and he’d yet to try it, but Chris swore that the vanilla lattes were worth a blow job. He’d settle for a hot chocolate.

“What’s the conversion rate on a blow job?” asked Victor, making the girl behind the stare at him in shock. Victor took his drink, oblivious.

“It’s more of a haggle than a straight rate.” Chris reasoned, wiggling his eyebrows behind his paper cup, already taking a sip. 

“So what’s with you and Yuuri Katsuki?” Chris asked, once they were out of the shop. His voice was obviously conveying what he thought was up between them. 

“He’s enchanting, Chris. Have you seen his step sequence?” 

“Yes.” 

“And his –“ Victor paused. “You’ve seen him? Do you know him? Have you been holding out on me chris?” Victor paused in the road dramatically. 

“Honestly Victor, he won bronze on my final Junior Grand Prix. We barely talked, his step sequences were great even then, though. It has something to do with his ballet teacher. He’s very flexible, Victor.” Again, with the eyebrows. 

Victor took a sip of his hot chocolate, and his eyes widened.

“Nice, ya?” 

“I’m going to need one every morning.” Victor responded, he eyes glancing past his friend and towards the ice rink. The day was going to be good. 

The lights were on in the skating rink already, which was the first anomaly. The second was that Mrs D’Angelo was doing her paperwork at the desk and not in her office.  
That was when Victor realised there was already people on the ice, and the two seemed to be in a heated debate. Chris opened his mouth to ask Mrs D’Angelo if the rink had been hired out when victor interrupted. 

“YUURI~!” Victor called, and the two simultaneously turned around. Victor was already jogging over to the ice. 

“I’ve told them that you come in on Sundays, they said they would share the ice.” The older woman told Chris, and Chris thanked her before quickly catching up to Victor. Who knows what trouble he’d get up to. 

“H-hi Nikiforov.” Victor counted it as a win that it wasn’t his usual greeting of falling over and stuttering his name like a question. The boy he was with practically had his jaw on the floor. 

“You know Victor Nikiforov, Yuuri? Since when.” 

“I – I don’t know him, Phichit. We’ve just seen each other a couple of times in the ice rink.” Yuuri had turned to the other boy.

“I’ve been helping Yuuri with his jumps!” 

“What?” Both Phichit and Chris asked at the same time. The prior turned towards Yuuri for explanation.

“It was more criticism of my jumps than anything.” Victor pouted. 

“I thought we were bonding Yuuri.” 

“You’ve been bonding with Victor Nikiforov?!” Phichit exclaimed. 

“I – I think I’m going to go skate more.” Yuuri turned away from all of them without answering. 

“No, no, no!” Phichit pulled him back. “You need to stop with the jumps, Yuuri! It’s been hours and you’ll just hurt yourself.”  
“I can handle it.” 

“Unless you want to fall and do some serious damage you need to-“  
“Phichit.”  
“Yuuri.” 

Victor, who had been watching the exchange tilted his head and removed his finger from his lip. 

“Yuuri~” There was a downward inflection to the name this time, as if he was disappointed. “You need to relax and rest a little. Your friend is just looking out for you.”  
“I can rest when I’ve done my quad toe loop.” 

“Doing too many jumps will damage your knees, Yuuri, and we’ll never get you to the Grand Prix Final this season.”

“Wha-What? I’ve never made it to the Grand Prix final!” Yuuri shouted, making the sound of his voice echo through the ice rink. Mrs D’Angelo looked up briefly, but Chris made sure to beam at her to let her know everything was alright. Yuuri’s face had gone red, but Victor didn’t seem to notice. 

“Of course you haven’t. I’ve never been there to help you. But I am this season, you obviously need a lot of work doing so we should meet early every day. You’re usually here at 6, right?” 

“y-yeah” Yuuri shot Phichit a pleading look, who only seemed to smile back. 

“Perfect. Then I’ll meet you here. Now you should go get some rest. Maybe ice your feet. We’ll work on your toe loop tomorrow.” It was such a vague dismissal that all Yuuri could do was glide off the ice, shooting his friend another tortured look. 

“Wait!” Phichit shouted, rummaging in his pocket for something. “This is a perfect selfie opportunity.” 

The four crowded around the phone, Victor pulling the Japanese skater in close making him stutter and look away.  
When Phichit uploaded the picture on Instagram, he added the hashtag #tempRinkMates and tagged the three others in it.  
When he gained a hundred new followers in the first minute, he was proud of his choices.

~

Victor and Yuuri built up a schedule. It was the closest word Victor could think of to describe it. For the next week, he spent three hours at least with Yuuri before the Ice Rink opened, and sometimes Yuuri would stay longer. 

Chris pouted to no end when Victor still went in on their day off, and when Yuuri didn’t leave for the whole day until Victor got his own skates out. No matter how many times Victor pushed, he refused to stand on the same ice as the Russian, and when asked, he would return to a stuttering mess. 

It wasn’t until Friday, when the Ice Rink had opened with Victor manning the desk that he found out the truth. 

Yuuri had finished his skating, he was sweaty and had his skate bag thrown over his shoulder and Victor didn’t stop himself from brushing the damp locks away from Yuuri’s eyes so he could gaze into them. 

“You work so hard even in the off-season; your coach must love you.” 

“Not everyone can start the season off with a world record and build up from there.” Yuuri replied and his gaze was steady regardless of the blush aligning his cheeks.

“There were rumours that you were going to retire.” Victor told him, ignoring the obvious jab. Yuuri shrugged, leaning against the side of the desk and already looking like he could go back on the ice and skate another three hours. Victor wondered at his stamina. 

“There were rumours that you were going to retire.” Yuuri said in lieu of a reply.

“Perhaps I should, then I could become your coach, and you’d definitely reach the Grand Prix Final.” Victor tapped his chin thoughtfully. 

“NO!” Yuuri’s face instantly changed, emotions that Victor couldn’t recognise passed. 

“You don’t want me as a coach, Yuuri? I thought you were a fan?” Victor pouted, giving his best sad eyes at the younger man. 

“I am! I started skating because of you!” He seemed shocked at the admission, and Victor tilted his head and waited for him to continue. 

“I mean - I,” he sighed. “I saw your Junior World Champions. In Bulgaria, when you won Gold. I – I had skated before, but it was then that I knew I wanted to do it competitively.” He looked up, a faint blush staining his cheeks. “It’s been my goal to skate on the same ice as you, as an equal, for as long as I can remember.” 

Victor tilted his head, confused. 

“But I’ve asked you to skate with me before, Yuuri. Why do you run away?” The blush deepened. 

“I guess I just wanted the first time I skated with you to be in a competition, if it was just practice on some ice I’d spend the whole time watching you, or comparing everything I do to you. If we skated against each other I would be comparing myself to you as an athlete against an opponent, no as a kid against his idol.” Yuuri had looked down again during his monologue, he cheeks becoming more scarlet the longer he talked. Victor took Yuuri’s chin in his hand and brought his face up so they met eye to eye. 

“Then we’ll skate against each other Yuuri, as competitors.” Yuuri nodded slightly, his eyes watering at the edge. “But you should know, I’ve seen you as my equal since the first time I saw you skate.” Yuuri pulled away Victors palm, the tears running freely now. 

“I – I’ve –“ He ran out of the ice rink before either could say anything else, and Victor let out a deep sigh. 

“I think he likes you.” Chris purred, leading against the back of the chair. 

“He’s too precious.” Victor agreed. 

He spent the rest of the day with only one person on his mind. 

~

“Yuuri, it’s Saturday!” 

“Is that special?” Yuuri asked, walking straight past Victor on the front desk who was waiting for Yuuri to show up for their early morning practice.  
“Of course, it’s Lovers on Ice!” 

“Wh-what?”  
“Do you have a lover, Yuuri?” 

“I – I, no! Why are you asking?” Victor didn’t think he would ever get over the younger boy’s blush. 

“Because, as your temporary coach, there are things I should know! To help with your skating.” 

“No.” Victor tried not to pout. 

“What about ex-lovers?” 

“Victor, we’re not talking about this!” 

“But I don’t know anything about you other than your skating, and what Chris has told me.” 

“You asked Chris about me?” Yuuri had stopped, and was looking pointedly anywhere but Victor.

“Of course, I want to know everything about you.” 

“I’m not that interesting.” Yuuri muttered, hurrying to sit down on the benches to put his skates on. 

“Neither am I.” That got Yuuri to look at him. 

“That’s ridiculous, you’re Victor Nikiforov!” 

“And you’re Yuuri Katsuki, and I want to know everything that makes that up.” 

On Saturday, Yuuri only got two hours of practice instead of three, but Victor felt like the hour of knowledge he’d gained more than made up for the lapse of skating. 

~

“I wonder if Yuuri likes roses” 

“I’m sure he does.” 

“Do you think, Chris?” Victor turned around, ignoring the couple that were looking for their Lovers on Ice rose and looked wide eyed at the other man. “Do you think I should have given him a rose?” 

“The roses are for customers who are actually on a date, Victor. Like the couple you’re ignoring.” Mr D’Angelo said, walking past with a box of files in his hand.  
“Sorry!” Victor called, turning back to the couple. 

“Eros or agape?” 

“what’s the difference?” The guy of the couple asked. 

“Agape is unconditional love, and for couples that have been dating for longer than a year. Anything less and you’re still in Eros- or sexual love. You get roses accordingly.”  
“Eros, please.” The girl replied, blushing. Victor handed over the single rose and gave them the discount and turned back to Chris. 

“Could you imagine Yuuri skating Eros, I bet he would look breath taking.” 

“Should I be offended, Victor? You know Eros and I go together like condoms and lube.” Chris pouted, leaning against the desk facing away from the customers and crossing his arm. 

“You know you’re oozing with Eros, Chris. But can you imagine it.” Victor sighed once more, handing the next, elderly, couple their two roses and glancing at Chris from the corner of his eye. 

“But can you imagine, cute, innocent Yuuri, in a revealing outfit selling you sex on the ice.” 

“Excuse me.” Another couple was at the desk. Victor ignored them, perking up. 

“Can you remember my Junior Worlds Gold? In Bulgaria?” Chris nodded, rolling his eyes and if everyone didn’t remember that record breaking championship. “Can you imagine Yuuri in that outfit dancing Eros?” 

“Excuse me?” The couple at the desk asked again, Victor glanced at them, held up a hand to signal they could wait, and turned back to Chris. 

“That really would be something, Victor.” Chis replied. “You still have your old costumes, right? Perhaps it’s time you … regift it.” 

“Can we please have a ticket for ‘Lovers on ice’ ?” The couple was standing more agitated, and Victor turned to look at them. The two guys standing in front of Victor were tall and angry looking, like they were sick of being ignored. Victor threw a glance back at Chris, who shrugged and moved away before he looked back at the customers.  
“Sure. How long you two been together?” 

“Why is that needed?” Victor smiled tightly. 

“Because it’s part of the Lovers on Ice package. More or less than a year?” 

“Less.” Victor nodded, giving them a rose and their recipe and waving them off to the skate rental. 

The next couple were agape and they looked at Victor like he reminded them of someone. Victor was vaguely worried they would recognise him, and he’d get swamped by his fans, but when they moved on, victor let out a sigh. 

“Hey!” Fuck. He turned, it was the angry gay couple, looking even angrier.  
“What?” Victor asked, already tired. 

“You gave my friends a bigger discount!” Tall Angry Gay said, pointing towards the agape couple that he had just served. 

“And two roses?” Smaller Angry Gay added. 

“yes, I did.” Victor said, confused. 

“Bro. Is this some kind of hate thing?” Tall Angry asked, stepping closer to the desk.

“Can you please not get so close.” 

“Excuse me?” Smaller Angry said. 

“Hey!” Agape Couple exclaimed. “You’re that Russian skater, that’s where I knew you from!” 

Even more Fuck. 

“Listen, -“ 

“Oh, you’re Russian? Listen, you might come from homophobic country, but there are discrimination laws in this country! You can’t just pick and choose who are better lovers.”

“I’m not?” Victor asked, glancing over to Chris, who was looking on, amused. “They got a discount because their love is unconditional, and you’re is just sexual-“ 

“Excuse me?” Smaller Angry said, as if that was the only thing he could say. “What are you implying? That we’re some kind of perverts? That gays are only interested in sex? My boyfriend and I have been together for six months and we’re in a committed loving relationship!” 

“I’m really not interested in what you and your boyfriend get up to can you just skate or leave?” Victor asked. He knew why he never had a job before this.  
“We’re just like everyone else.” 

“I’m sure you are, but everyone else doesn’t waste my time.” Taller Angry Gay steps threateningly close to the desk, and Victor flicks his hair from his eyes. 

“I think you should go, before you go any further.” Victor’s voice had gotten soft and almost threatening. 

“C’mon, babe. It’s not worth it.” Smaller Angry Gay pulled against his boyfriend, and the taller guy stormed out. The Agape couple that recognised Victor, and was standing a few feet just spectating, trailed behind them, talking loudly about how they could let someone like Victor work at such a friendly place and the Angel’s Ice Rink.

“You know how to make the day interesting, Victor.” Chris moved himself back against the desk, leaning back against the wall. 

“Did they actually accuse me of being homophobic?” Victor giggled, making Chris forward to rest himself against Victor’s shoulder. 

“I know, you’re the biggest queer there is. Apart from me that is.” Chris winked. “You were literally just talking about putting your boyfriend into your gender ambiguous bondage and lingerie inspired skating costume as they interrupted you.” 

“He’s not my boyfriend yet, Chris. And he would look so good in it.” And the little spat was forgotten, the two lost in talking about which figure skaters would look good is their previous costumes. 

~ 

Sunday meant a lie in. He’d planned on getting up, really, but Victor couldn’t help but laze about an extra hour or two. He called team Russia, telling them he’d found inspiration, and gotten yelled at by Yuri, who told him to get his butt back to Russia so they could train. He promised another week or two, and headed to the rink. 

He was later than usual, after Yuri took up most of him time yelling, so by the time he got to the rink Yuuri was nowhere to be seen. Victor felt himself pout, he’d thought Yuuri might have at least stayed around to talk to him a bit, even if he refused to skate on the ice until they were officially competing against each other.

His phone charger had broken, so he couldn’t even check to see if Chris had brought him a hot chocolate from the nice little coffee shop before he got in.  
Chris was already on the ice, a sheen of sweat on his brow but at the side of the rink on his phone. Victor sat down getting his skates out to put on before he called a greeting.  
“Victor, you never guessed what was sent me this morning while I was warming up.” Chris skated closer to the benches, and Victor waited until he had his skates on to address that. 

“If it’s a dick pic, Chris, I absolutely want to see.” He skated around the side so he could look at the screen. 

It was not, in fact, a dick pic. Or even a pic of any kind. It was a video. Of Victor. 

It was entitled [HOMOPHOBIC RUSSIAN FIGURE SKATER THROWS OUT GAY COUPLE FROM ICE RINK] It was obviously cropped to start with the Angry Couple starting next to the desk, with them saying –“a hate thing?” From there, it kind of gives the impression that Victor is being a dick to a gay couple. 

And for people that don’t frequent Angel’s Ice Rink, and don’t know about the Eros and Agape discounts, it makes Victor seem like a homophobic douche.  
The video had gone viral. 

“Wow. That might be an issue.” Chris says, a teasing smile on his lip. 

“They didn’t mention the name of the rink, and it doesn’t look like it’s gotten out. I think this was just aimed at me. Russia’s not exactly going to hate me for it, and I’m as straight as plausible deniability goes and that’s it.” 

“It looks like your fans don’t believe it.” He showed Victor the comments, which were mostly disbelief, the occasional hate remark and the rest, which consisted of stuff like ‘I don’t care if he’s homophobic it doesn’t affect his skating’ or ‘what do you expect, he’s grown up in a homophobic country’. Victor shrugged. 

“It’ll blow over eventually, by the time the skating season begins people would have forgotten.” He skated away to do some quick warm ups. 

“Look,” Chris said, continuing to scroll. “Someone has commented that you can’t be homophobic, because you’re obviously in love with me.” 

“How can anyone be straight after hanging out with you?” Victor replied, grinning. “You ooze Eros.” 

~

Yuuri did not show up for their session on Monday. Victor was not worried. It was just one day, and Yuuri had said he was supposed to be on vacation in Switzerland. Maybe he was just having a relaxing day off. 

He spent the three hours skating by himself, pointedly not waiting for Yuuri to show up.  
But then he didn’t turn up on Tuesday. 

By Thursday, Victor was convinced he had gone back to Detroit and just not told him. He’d set up a google alert for Yuuri Katsuki the first day he had met him and refreshed it three times. 

Yuuri was a notorious anti-internet skater. There was nothing. 

“He just used me for my coaching and left, Chris. He temped me with his Wiles, seduced me with his innocence and then he’s gone. Puff! I feel used, Chris.”  
“He hasn’t left, Victor. Maybe he’s just avoiding you.” Chris hadn’t looked up from his phone. 

“How do you know? It’s been days, Chris. No word, no letter, not even a single rose for me to remember him by.” 

“His friend, Phichit uploaded a picture in the rink with the hash tag #midnight session. It’s Angel’s. He’s still here.” 

“You’re friends with him?”

“I follow his Instagram. We’re in the middle of a selfie war … He hasn’t taken up m latest challenge yet though. Maybe the photo in the lake behind the house was a bit too revealing for him.”

“Yuuri was at the Ice rink at midnight?” Chris scrolled up, presumably to find the picture, and squinted. 

“It doesn’t look like it, usually he tags Yuuri, or forces him into the picture.” Victor lay over him, his chin resting on Chris’s shoulder as he looked at the photo.  
“He would never miss skating, Chris, he told me that he has a scar on his forehead from when he fell on the ice trying to skate with the flu! I must have done something.” Chris laughs.

“Maybe he saw the video and is avoiding your homophobic ass.” Victor stands up.

“Chris what if he’s seen the video and thinks I’m homophobic.”

“Victor you spent an entire week flirting with him, to the point where you actually refer to him as a tasty Katsudon.” 

“It’s his favourite dish, he only gets to eat it when he wins a competition.” Victor cut in. Chris replied with a lecherous grin.

“So do you get to eat him if you win a competition?” 

“Chris this is serious~” Victor whined.  
“The point is you’d have to be blind not to realise that you were all over that Japanese cutie.” 

“So he either hates me because I’m homophobic or hates me because I’ve been flirting with him.”

“Or another reason completely unrelated.” Chris states. Victor rolled his eyes. 

“He’s avoiding the ice rink because of me, I know it.” 

“So find him then, and apologise for whatever you fucked up. Make up sex is almost as good as angry sex.” 

“I’m going to go and find him.” 

~ 

Finding Yuuri could be a board game, or a reality show, because that boy knew how to disappear.  
It was like he wasn’t ever there.

Victor was starting to wonder how no one he talked to, and he talked to a lot, could remember the most gorgeous Japanese man with the thighs of a god.  
But then again, before almost two weeks ago, Victor had missed the Japanese Yuuri too. 

The town was small, and Victor had tried the bars, the food places, the ice rink and the local hotel. No one knew where to find either Yuuri or Phichit.  
Maybe he had gone back to America. 

He sighed, giving up for today, and made his way to the coffee shop to get Chris a Vanilla Latte and himself a hot chocolate – with extra caramel shots, to cheer him up. The night was chilly and his breath frosted. It wasn’t anything like the cold in Russia, or the constant chill of the ice rink, but the warmth of the coffee shop was still appreciated.  
That Phichit was behind the counter with a serving apron on was even more apricated. 

“Phichit! I’ve been looking everywhere for a sign of you or Yuuri. Is he okay? He hasn’t shown up for the figure skating practices-“ 

“We don’t serve homophobes here.” Phichit cut him off, smiling brightly. 

“That’s? Good to know?” Victor tilted his head, confused. 

“You know,” Phichit started, and Victor was glad that this late at night no one was in the coffee shop, because he could feel a rant coming. “Yuuri, he looked up to you. I’ve been his roommate for three years now and he had posters up of you, constantly. Whenever we wanted to motivate him or get him out of his panic attacks, we could just mention you, and he’d be fine. 

“He always used to say he was just inspired professionally by you but I knew that was bull because he’s been a little bit in love with you since before you even knew he existed, and then he meets you, and you’re talking to him, not just talking – but like, being friendly, and he’s already got a crush, and you don’t make it easier and then, boom! That video, of you being an utter dick to that couple just because they’re gay and not only have you led him on, you’ve destroyed his trust, so like, congratulations Victor.” Victor paused, his smile frozen on his face when Phichit lands the final blow. 

“They say never meet your idols, right?” 

“I’m gay,” The words slip out, and it’s the first time he’s said them out loud, to another human being, since he made his senior debut and ended up crying in Yakov’s office. He’d cut his hair straight after, worried that know he was an adult he’d face worse consequences than his previous, childhood self. 

Plausible deniability always had a cost.

“You- what?” Phichit seemed thrown. 

“I’m Russia’s sweetheart, I’m not exactly going to be open about it, but I don’t deny it. And I don’t act homophobic. I’m best friends with Chris, for god’s sake.”

“So the video-“ 

“I may have spent five minutes ignoring that couple talking about Yuuri with Chris. They didn’t seem happy. They kind of just got angrier from there on. I was a bit of a dick to them, but because they were terrible people, not because they were gay.” 

“Oh,” Phichit said. 

“And I would love to explain that to Yuuri, so we can be friends again.” 

“Oh,” he repeated. Victor nodded. 

“So he’s-“ 

“At the dance studio around the corner. They let him hire out a room to do ballet in.” 

“spasibo!” Victor was out of the door before he’d finished, forgetting about the hot chocolate altogether. 

The dance studio shared a building with a takeaway, but the lights were on so Victor took that as a good sign. 

Yuuri was in the third room on the left, a standard ballet studio with Japanese music playing as he performed what looked to be Victor’s last seasons’ program without the ice.  
“You didn’t come back.” Victor didn’t mean to make him jump, but at least time Yuuri didn’t fall over. 

“Vic-tor. How’d you find me?” 

“I told Phichit what really happened with the video and he told me where to find you.” 

“I –“

“Did you really think so low of me, Yuuri? That you did not come to me for an explanation, but assumed the worse and ignore me for the rest of your time here?”  
“No- No, Victor. I didn’t know if it was real or not but I hoped it was!” Yuuri exclaimed, causing Victor to pause. 

“What does that mean, Yuuri?” 

“It means – I, I’m only going to be here for another week, Victor. And you’re – you! You’re Victor Nikiforov and you’re spending all your time coaching me on how to do things you’ve known since you were sixteen. I’m just a waste of time, and when you realise you’ll just – leave me. And I saw the video and realised that I should probably let you.” 

Victor looked down, trying to blink through the sudden build-up of tears that were swelling in his eyes. After a few moments, he felt the hair that had fallen across his eyes be wiped away. 

“Victor…”  
“What are you looking at?” 

“It’s just, I’m surprised to see you cry…” Victor pulled back, throwing Yuuri’s hand away from him.  
“I’m angry, okay? What should I do” 

“What- why? You’re the one who said this was only temporary.” 

“But I thought you’d still want to see me after this! That we’d still be friends, that’d you still want my help! But you’ve decided on your own that we shouldn’t see each other. You let me think I’d done something wrong, that you thought I was homophobic.” 

“I didn’t think you’d want me.” 

“You’re the first thing I’ve wanted in a long time, Yuuri.” He sighed, and Yuuri looked lost. 

“But after this – you’re going back to Russia, and I’m going back to America.” 

“Then I guess we have a week to make sure you’ll get to the Grand Prix, so we’ll have the longest time possible together. Then after the season, who knows? Maybe I’ll take up coaching.” 

“You’re planning to retire?” 

“Well, I’ve still got one or two more seasons in me.” 

“Hmm, it’s a shame I’ll have to ruin your gold streak just before you retire then.” Victor looked up the glint in Yuuri’s eye was something he never wanted to let go. He’d make Yuuri reach the final, he was sure of it. 

 

When he got back to Russia, and Yakov asked him if he was finished chasing his inspiration, Victor smiled, and showed his routine for on ‘On Love: Eros’, and even Yakov didn’t have much to say, and when he showed Plisetsky the programme of ‘On Love: Agape’, he finally shut up about the deal Victor made. 

 

The two didn’t get placed in any qualifers together, but they met at the Grand Prix. Victor’s short programme broke his own world record. Yuuri changed his last jump into a quad flip, and broke Victor’s free skate wold record. 

Yuuri didn’t break Victor’s gold streak, but it didn’t matter when Victor pulled him up onto the 1st place and kissed him in front of the stadium, ignoring Yurio’s cries of disgust from his podium in third place. 

 

Victor posted a picture of Yuuri kissing his Gold that night, with the hashtags #unconditional, #eros, #loveislove  
It went viral. 

A year later they showed up at Angel’s Ice Rink to claim the 20% discount and two free roses.

**Author's Note:**

> As a side note I'd like to add that the two roses given to Victor/Yuuri at the end was actually one each because Victor, being Russian, obvs wouldn't take an even # of flowers
> 
> H/c based on this AU:  
> -Russia's actually homophobic in this, but like, lower key than it is irl  
> -Victor was needy and skyped at like, all hours of the day, at least twice.  
> -Phichit would skype Victor in the middle of Yuuri's practice and Victor and Cialdini would squabble about what's right for Yuuri  
> -Because Yurio didn't meet Yuuri he didn't have as much drive and his didn't realise how serious the competition was. He got bronze.  
> -The next season he beat Victor's WR and Yuuri and they were both proud dads  
> -Yurio met Yuuri at the Rostelecom Cup and instantly bonded over how much they wanted to succeed just so Victor would lose  
> -Victor ended up in the NHK trophy and demanded Yuuri go home to Japan for like at least a week. Yurio came too. They tried Katsudon for the first time. Yurio still got nicknamed. Yuuri was introduced to Makkachin for the first time.  
> -Minako choreographed Yuuri's short program for him, his FS was still Yuuri! on Ice.  
> -Baranovskaya came in after the end of the GPF, when Yurio saw Yuuri in the middle of ballet and demanded Yakov find someone who could put him in that Zone.  
> -Yuuri still ended up going to Russia, and Victor still became his coach.
> 
> Also come shout ideas at me @ [My tumblr](https://buckmebuchanan.tumblr.com)


End file.
